The Dixie Chicks are considered the biggest-selling female band in history. Martie Maguire, Emily Robison and Natalie Maines have gone from the bluegrass and country world to wider success with hits such as "Wide Open Spaces" and "Long Time Gone." Now, they are releasing their first CD in three years: Taking the Long Way, a collaboration with rock and rap producer Rick Rubin.
C.C.H. Pounder is best known for her portrayal of Detective Claudette Wyms on the FX TV show The Shield. Recently, her character got a much deserved promotion to captain. Pounder was raised in Guyana, and schooled in Britain. The Shield is one of this year's recipients of the prestigious Peabody Award, being handed out Monday night.
In a new documentary, soldiers on the front lines in Iraq capture their own footage of the experience of war. The War Tapes, directed by Deborah Scranton, opens in New York and Los Angeles this weekend.
The film follows three men: Sgt. Steve Pink, Sgt. Zack Bazzi and Spc. Mike Moriarty, members of the National Guard who arrived in Iraq in March 2004.
Hans Blix, the former director of the U.N. Inspection Commission, addresses the UN Thursday with a report on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Tackling the WMD Challenge. Blix is now chairman of the independent Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Up until recently, Joseph R. Gannascoli played mob captain Vito Spatafore on The Sopranos. Then he got whacked. Before that, Gannascoli's character was "outed," having been spotted dancing in leather chaps at a gay bar. Now he moves on to his writing career: His new crime novel, A Meal to Die For, is about a mobster and gourmet chef who has been summoned to prepare a feast for a boss who is about to be sent to jail.
Critic at large John Powers has just returned from the Cannes film festival. The top prize winner at Cannes was director Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a film about the Irish rebellion against British rule and the country's subsequent civil war.
For 17 years, former Vice President Al Gore has been on the forefront of warning against global warming. But in his new documentary, The Inconvenient Truth, he says that he "failed to get the message out." He's now getting the message out with his documentary and new book of the same name. The Washington Post calls the book "downright chilling." The documentary has been critically acclaimed.
The new documentary Baghdad ER goes inside the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq, the Army's premier medical facility in Iraq. Shot over two months in 2005, the film tells the stories of the hospital's doctors and wounded soldiers. The film debuted on HBO last week. Filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill discuss their project with Terry Gross.
Film critic David Edelstein reviews Army of Shadows, the French film made in 1969 by Jean-Pierre Melville about the French Resistance. It's being released in the U.S. for the first time.
Country music singer and songwriter Willie Nelson has written a new book, The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart. Nelson has been performing for over 50 years. He's recorded 250 albums and appeared in 25 films. He's also the author of a number of books, including the best-sellers Willie and The Facts of Life and Other Dirty Jokes.
Few musicians are as identified with Texas as the late Doug Sahm. But Sahm also spent five years in exile in California, where rock historian Ed Ward got to know him. Ed takes a look at this period, in which he says Sahm and his band, the Sir Douglas Quintet, did some of their most lasting work.
One of the most acclaimed films of the 1970s was Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger, starring Jack Nicholson. On a new DVD release, home viewers can now see it in the original wide screen and with six additional minutes not shown in the American theatrical release. It's a personal favorite of critic John Powers, who says that it's not an easy film, but a good one.
Michael Farris is the co-founder of Home School Legal Defense Association and the president of Patrick Henry College, the first university in America for Christian home-schooled children. The school, located in Purcellville, Va., grooms its students for leadership.
Former Washington Post Congressional correspondent Juliet Eilperin says warlike tactics, manipulation and strategic takeovers have replaced compromise in the House. She drives home the point in her new book, Fight Club Politics: How Partisanship is Poisoning the U.S. House of Representatives.
The award-winning Australian novelist Peter Carey is known for his manic comic energy. Reaching for comparisons, reviewers have likened him to James Joyce, Tom Wolfe and other writers obviously in love with words, words, words. Carey's latest novel, Theft: A Love Story, is sure to steal its readers' attention away from all other activities.
Neko Case grew up in Tacoma, Wash., attended art school in Vancouver and performs and records with the Canadian pop-rock band The New Pornographers. As a solo artist, her music has often tended to be more influenced by country and folk music. Her new CD, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, is her fourth studio album. Our music critic says it contains some of her most complex and beautiful music to date.
Leonard Cohen's poetry career began 50 years ago with the 1956 publication of Let Us Compare Mythologies. His new volume of poetry is called Book of Longing. Cohen, known better as the deep-voiced writer of songs that straddle the folk-rock fence, is also working on an upcoming album to be released later this year.
Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code is second only to the Harry Potter series as the best-selling novel of all time. It has inspired a whole slew of writing on Biblical puzzles, the life of Mary Magdalene, and some debunking of Brown's premise.
Now comes the long-anticipated film, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou. Our film critic says that the real story about this mega-budget movie is that it's an embarrassing nonevent.
